Friday, July 21, 2017

Let's Learn Sinhalese in English 5

So far in the
lessons, I made sure not to use plural nouns (except plural forms of
pronouns). In Sinhala, nouns are somewhat complicated than in
English. In English, almost all nouns are automatically singular, and
you make plural of them by appending “s” or “es” at the end
of the noun. However, in Sinhala both the singular and plural nouns
are formed from “noun stems/roots”. Learning about noun roots,
and deriving various forms out of them is deep and complicated, and
even the native Sinhala speaker doesn’t know anything about it. So,
we will keep that linguistically correct way of learning about nouns
aside. Let’s take a different approach.

I suggest you to
study both singular and plural forms when you study Sinhala words in
the initial stage of learning. At once, it would seem like a daunting
task, but it is not. There is an intuitive relationship between the
singular and plural forms of a noun, and you will grasp it gradually.
There are a set of grammatical rules on how to relate the two forms
(of noun) to each other. However, I feel it is not required or
important to know all these rules; it will not do any good. I will
list some nouns in both forms.

Singular

Plural

Mala (flower)

Mal (flowers)

Gala (stone)

Gal (stones)

Potha (book)

Poth (books)

Paena (pen)

Paen (pens)

Gasa (tree)

Gas (trees)

Paensala (pencil)

Paensal (pencils)

Balla: (dog)

Ballo: / Ballan (dogs)

Pu:sa: (cat)

Pu:so: / Pu:san (cats)

Mi:ya: (rat)

Mi:yo: / Mi:yan (rats)

Ka:kka: (crow)

Ka:kko: / Ka:kkan (crows)

Kurulla: (bird)

Kurullo: / Kurullan (birds)

Lamaya: (child)

Lamayi / Lamayin (children)

Samanalaya: (butterfly)

Samanalayo: / Samanalayan (butterflies)

Maessa: (fly)

Maesso: / Maessan (flies)

Miniha: , Minisa: (man)

Minissu / Minisun (men)

Gaehaeniya, Gaehaeni (woman)

Gaehaenu, Gaehaenun (women)

Pihiya (knife)

Pihi (knives)

Kadaya (shop)

Kada (shops)

Putuva (chair)

Putu (chairs)

Me:saya (table)

Me:sa (tables)

Ka:maraya (room)

Ka:mara (rooms)

Geya (house)

Geval (houses)

Putha: (son)

Putha:la: / Puththu / Puthun (sons)

Duva (daughter)

Duvala: (daughters)

Amma: (mother)

Ammala: (mothers)

Tha:ththa: (father)

Tha:ththala: (fathers)

Si:ya: (grandfather)

Si:yala: (grandfathers)

A:chchi (grandmother)

A:chchila: (grandmothers)

Ayya: (elder brother)

Ayyala: (elder brothers)

Akka: (elder sister)

Akkala: (elder sisters)

Malli (younger brother)

Mallila: (younger brothers)

Nangi (younger sister)

Nangila: (younger sisters)

Ma:ma: (uncle)

Ma:mala: (uncles)

Naenda: (aunty)

Naendala: (aunties)

Atha (hand)

Ath (hands)

Kakula (leg)

Kakul (legs)

Muhuna (face)

Muhunu (faces)

Kana (ear)

Kan (ears)

Aesa (eye)

Aes (eyes)

Kata (mouth)

Kataval (mouths)

Datha (tooth)

Dath (teeth)

Bada (stomach/belly)

Badaval (bellies)

Nahaya (nose)

Nahayaval (noses)

Oluva (head)

Olu / Oluvaval (heads)

Kalisama (pair of trousers)

Kalisam (pairs of trousers)

Bo:thalaya (bottle)

Bo:thal (bottles)

Vaththa (garden)

Vathu, Vaththaval (gardens)

Pa:ra (road)

Pa:raval (roads)

Guruvaraya: (teacher)

Guruvaru / Guruvarun (teachers)

Aemathivaraya: (minister)

Aemathivaru / Aeathivarun
(ministers)

Rata (country)

Rataval (countries)

Nagaraya (city)

Nagara / Nagaraval (cities)

Gama (village)

Gam, Gamaval (villages)

Mula (root)

Mul (roots)

Study and memorize
the above nouns (both singular and plural forms). Then, you will see
some patterns. The more nouns you learn, the clearer and easier the
pattern will be. Trust me. Anyway, I very briefly point out the
mostly used patterns.

1. The ending vowel in the singular noun is omitted. Sometimes nouns
ending with “ya” or “wa” lose it too.

Mala, Gala, Mula, Pihiya, Putuva

2. “-val” is suffixed to the singular noun to make it plural.
While doing so, some nouns (specially ones ending with “ya”)
loses the ending syllable.

Pa:ra, Bada, Nagaraya

3. The ending vowel of some nouns changed to “o:” or “an” to
make it plural.

Balla:, Pu:sa:, mi:ya:

4. All the nouns ending with “varaya:” are made plural by
changing it to “varu” or “varun”.

Guruvaraya:, Aemathivaraya:

5. “-la” is suffixed to make plural. While doing so, the
stretched/long vowel sound at the end of the singular noun is made
short too.

Ayya:, Nangi, Malli

In English, a noun
can be either definite (with the article “the”) or indefinite
(with the article “a/an” in the singular case or without any
article in the plural case). Sinhala has this definite/indefinite
distinction only in singular nouns. In plural, the same plural noun
form is used in either definite or indefinite meaning. Automatically
the singular noun is definite. To make it indefinite you append “-ek”
(for animate nouns) or “-ak” (for inanimate nouns) to the
singular noun. Just as English “a/an” has the meaning of “one”,
Sinhala “-ek / -ak” has the same meaning.

Lamaya: (the child)→ Lamayek (a child)

Miniha: (the man) → Minihek (a man)

Mala (the flower) → Malak (a flower)

Paena (the pen) → Paenak (a pen)

As you can see the
last syllable of some nouns is modified so that the word is easily
soundable/pronounceable. Actually, to ease pronunciation, it is done
so in any language. It is a linguistic norm. When you get familiar
with the language, you will intuitively do it.

Note that in the
spoken Sinhala, there is no difference in nominative case (when a
noun is used as a subject) and objective case (when a noun is used as
an object).

Now let’s learn
about Sinhala prepositions (like on, in, from, to, etc).
Clearly there are Sinhala prepositions, some of which I list below.
You must memorize these words first.

Preposition

Meaning

Uda, Matha

On

Gaena

About (as in “information about you”)

yata

under

Paeththen

beside

Udin, Ihalin

Above, Over

Issarahin , Idiriyen

In front of

Pitipassen, Pitupasin

Behind

Athara

Between, Among

Ekka, Sama’mga

With

Naethiva, Haera

Without, Except

Pamana, Vithara

About (as in “about 100 dollars”)

Vate:ta

Around (as in “around the table”)

Sa’mdaha:

For

Venuven

On behalf of, For

Thulin

Through

Thek, Venakal, Thuru

Till/Until (a time), as far as (a place)

Pura: , Pura:vata

During

Pera, Issara

Before, Ago

Thula, Aethule: , -e:

In

Thulata, Aethulata

Into

Eliyata, Pitathata

Outside

Harahata

Across

Dhige:

Along

Visin, Magin

By

Vetha, Dhesa

At

La’mga, Asala

Near, At (as in “he is waiting at the gate”)

Sita

From (a place), Since (a time)

-gen , -en/-in

From (a person or place)

-ge: , -e:

Of

Vage:

Like

Vasayen

As

-ta

To

Vethata

Towards

Like in English, the
preposition does not change with respect to noun, but unlike in
English, there are some differences when using Sinhala prepositions.
Sinhala prepositions are placed after the noun (but in English it is
put in front of a noun).

Me:saya uda – On the table

Me:sayak uda – On a table

Me:sa uda – On the tables / On tables

Moreover, some of
the prepositions are suffixed to the noun. In the above list, I have
shown them clearly with a hyphen (like “-en”).

Sherin + -gen → Sheringen (from Sherin)

Anne + -ge → Annege (of Anne)

Gasa + -en → Gasen (from the tree)

Gasak + -in → Gasakin (from a tree)

Ahasa + -e: → Ahase: (in the sky or of the sky)

Atha + -e: → Athe: (in the hand or of the hand)

Earlier I told you
that many English words (both nouns and verbs; but only nouns are
considered now) are used in Sinhala. There are some implicit
rules/norms when you use those English nouns, and there is a good
underpinning for those rules.

Almost all English
nouns (and other words too) don’t end with a vowel sound (that is,
they are constant-sounding). However, most Sinhala words end with a
vowel (that is, they are vowel-sounding). This is actually a very
crucial factor because a person who is accustomed to speak/pronounce
English (or another language sounded like English) may find difficult
to pronounce/speak Sinhala, and vice versa.

Usually almost all
Sinhala verbs (in whatever modified forms) end with a vowel sound.
Almost all singular Sinhala nouns end so. Many plural Sinhala nouns
also end with a vowel sound (and many end with constant sound too).
So do most of other types of words (like prepositions, adjectives).

Therefore,
constant-sounding singular English nouns are not used as it is. To
make it more compatible with the usual Sinhala pronunciation, we put
“eka” (definite noun) or “ekak” (indefinite)
after the English noun.

Phone eka (the phone)

Phone ekak (a phone)

Bus eka (the bus)

Bus ekak (a bus)

Car eka (the car)

Car ekak (a car)

However, sometimes
some English nouns are treated like normal Sinhala nouns; specially
those nouns which end with a vowel sound. Only a few such nouns
exist, you don’t have to worry much about them. One such example is
“sofa”.

So:fa:va (the sofa)

So:fa:vak (a sofa)

So:fa: (the sofas or sofas)

However, because
constant-sounding plural nouns are common and familiar in Sinhala,
you just use the singular English noun, as it is, in the plural
meaning. You don’t put “s” or “es” to make the English noun
plural here (it is not right to apply grammar of another language
even if you may borrow words from it); automatically almost all
English nouns are considered plural within Sinhala (it is due to the
fact that they end with a constant sound).